


A new Beginning

by voices_in_my_head



Category: Free!
Genre: 52 weeks challenge, Soulmates AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-08
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-12 14:32:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5669452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voices_in_my_head/pseuds/voices_in_my_head
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"“Nanase Haruka,” he repeated out loud, feeling the name inside his mouth. He wanted to keep thinking that it was a joke but marks were never wrong. "</p>
            </blockquote>





	A new Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> What to say... I love soulmates AU, I love this pairing and the prompt for this week was: A story entitled “A New Beginning”. It was a sign of the gods, clearly.

Sousuke would be lying if he said that lying on his bed on the night of the 13th of September he didn’t feel excited. It was eleven pm and he couldn’t fall asleep, and he knew he wouldn’t, not until it was after midnight and the name of the one he was supposed to be with appeared on his skin.

He wondered, like he’d been doing for many nights, if it would be someone he knew. There wasn’t really anyone he wanted it to be, but there were several people that he was sure he wouldn’t mind if they turned out to be his soulmate.

Sousuke grew a giddy smile at that. In less than one hour he was going to know his soulmate’s name. He hadn’t felt this excited since… since the Summer tournament.

He looked at the watch again. A quarter past eleven. What was he supposed to do to pass the time!? He felt he was losing his mind! And there wasn’t even anyone to talk with. Rin had decided to spend the night with his family, saying that Sousuke should be alone because it was a special moment and God, he had had tears in his eyes as he said it!

Sousuke couldn’t even imagine the mess he would be before his eighteenth birthday, but luckily that wouldn’t come for the next few months.

“You’re such an asshole,” Rin had said as he’d told him that but he’d been smiling. Anyway, he was Rin, Sousuke was sure that whoever ended up being his soulmate would be a wonderful person and they would probably get married right after high school. Well, maybe that would be too early but he’s sure they would get married at some point in the future, probably a not so distant one.

Half past eleven. Sousuke was so close to actually starting to tear his hair out. He wasn’t even a romantic, he’d never really had expectations about his soulmate; sure, he’d thought about them once in a while, mostly hoping it would be a man, because he’d figured out that that was what would make him the happiest years before, but aside from that he’d had some romantic thoughts about first meetings, first dates… but that had been it. He knew that whatever he came up with in his imagination wouldn’t end up being the reality, so why bother? He had to live in the here and now, and deal with his soulmate when they came.

“Where’s the romance!?,” Rin had asked in an exaggerated manner, throwing himself at his bunk after Sousuke had shared that thought. Seriously, how people ever thought Rin was scary he would never know.

It was only twenty five minutes to midnight. Fuck this. He lowered himself from the bunk, got his mp3 and decided to just lay on Rin’s bed, being too lazy to get back up.

Every two minutes he would look at his watch, not being able to immerse himself completely in the songs, even if they were some of his favourites, but of course, it still wasn’t midnight.

Finally, two minutes to it, he turned off the music, and stared at the watch, barely blinking.

Midnight struck and he slowly let out a breath he’d been holding for several seconds. Nothing happened. For a moment panic entered his mind. What if he ended up not having a soulmate!? Of course, he knew some people didn’t, and he didn’t see anything wrong with it, and it was still possible to find someone to fall in love with – although problems usually arose if they had their mark – but… He felt a pain on his bicep and once again stopped breathing.

Characters were slowly being written. So the person would be Japanese. That was good to know.

“Nanase…” he started reading and fuck no. This had to be some joke. There was no fucking way, but the name was clear as water and ah, wasn’t that funny. “Haruka,” he finished in a small tone.

Thank God Rin wasn’t there to mock him because the groan he made while throwing himself at the pillows was way too dramatic.

“Nanase Haruka,” he repeated out loud, feeling the name inside his mouth. He wanted to keep thinking that it was a joke but marks were never wrong. Well, of course, it didn’t always work out well, but the universe or whatever shit was up there, still believed that the name that appeared on their eighteenth birthday was of the person they would be the most happy, most compatible with.

Sousuke started laughing. It wasn’t a particular happy sound, but it wasn’t that angry either. Mostly it was… relieved. He didn’t even know why he was relieved. Probably because at least he didn’t have to wonder anymore.

He wasn’t Nanase’s fan. Everyone knew that and while Rin had been trying to change his mind for months and they actually seemed to have a civil relationship nowadays, they still didn’t like each other. Or… Sousuke didn’t. He frowned. He suddenly remembered something that had happened probably over a month ago. Nanase’s birthday and how much Rin had moaned about how he wouldn’t tell him about his mark, and how it was on his tight and so he couldn’t see it and they were friends, it was so unfair! Sousuke’s memory stopped after that but he kept repeating the same thought over and over: Nanase had had his name in his skin for at least a month and he’d done nothing about it.

Well, that was fucking shit. So Nanase didn’t want anything to do with him? Sousuke knew he shouldn’t blame him; he’d been an asshole for him plenty a times, he’d never been that nice either so really, he should have been expecting this. But it was different now, a part in his mind said. They were soulmates and it might not work, it didn’t always, but they had to take a chance.

Uh, Sousuke suddenly thought. He actually wanted to try and… date Nanase.

He needed a plan. He almost called Rin, because of course he would have at least a dozen different plans to how to woo Nanase Haruka, but he didn’t give that thought more than a couple of seconds. This was something he had to do himself. At least tomorrow was a Saturday.

He got up and went to his own bed. It took several hours for sleep to find him, and during that time he went through several plans. None was defined but one thing was for sure: he wouldn’t take a no easily.

.

Sousuke was up at nine am. It wasn’t that early for him; even during weekends he followed a training regimen. Just because he could no longer swim didn’t mean he had any desire to waste all his hard work. Besides, he liked the training. It helped him think. And also, they did say exercise made people happier.

He dressed in his training clothes and put the headphones on. He would start with a run, since he needed to clear his mind.

During the night it had felt obvious what he had to do but now he wasn’t so sure anymore. There had to be a reason Nanase had never told him he was his soulmate. Maybe he’d thought Sousuke wouldn’t believe him? Fair enough, but he did have his name tattooed. Or… he stopped tying the shoelaces. Maybe he didn’t. It wouldn’t be the first time someone had a name tattooed and the other person didn’t have theirs.

Sousuke put his head in his hands and groaned. Why did things have to be so complicated!? He didn’t want a romance straight out of a fairy tale. That was Rin’s dream; all he wanted was someone who understood him, who was there for him… Could Nanase be that person?

He didn’t know what was like to lose all hopes of fulfilling his dream… but he’d never been mean to him. He’d never mocked him. Hell, he’d probably been way nicer to Sousuke than he’d deserved and he was trying really hard to go through his memories to find out if that behaviour had changed over the past month.

He couldn’t remember a special occasion but then again, he’d never paid Nanase that much attention.

Sousuke finished tying his shoelaces and got up. He wasn’t going to do this to himself. Spend days and days wondering about “what ifs” and “maybes”. That wasn’t who he was. He made things happen because that was the only way to keep moving on.

He left the headphones on the desk, took a deep breath and then left his room, walking slowly towards the entrance.

Outside he started running. Not around the school, instead towards the train station. He had something to do and his training would have to wait.

.

It didn’t take long before Sousuke was out of the train station closest to Nanase’s house – which he’d only visited once and that had been several weeks before with Rin, to “grow bonds” or whatever he’d said – and had started running towards it.

By half ten he was ringing the doorbell.

Sousuke did it once, twice, three times… No one opened. Then he noticed the door was actually open. He knew he shouldn’t enter; a door open did not mean he had permission. But… Nanase might be in trouble. The door didn’t look to have been forced, but you never knew.

“Nanase!” He screamed while walking in, but the house was completely silent. Maybe he’d left to go to some shop really quickly? If so, then they really needed to have a talk about safety.

Still, he wanted to be sure, so taking off his shoes, Sousuke slowly started walking around the house. It didn’t take long before he heard noises coming from the bathroom.

Splashes?

“Nanase?” He knocked on the door but didn’t get an answer. He waited a few more seconds and repeated his name, still not getting an answer. He was starting to get worried so forgetting all common sense he opened the door right at the moment Nanase was raising his head from the water.

He was taking a bath. Of course he was taking a bath. Sousuke sighed.

Nanase blinked slowly. “What are you doing here?”

“You left your door open,” Sousuke answered like that actually meant anything.

But apparently it did because Nanase nodded and then started getting up. Sousuke was a bad, bad man because he knew he should look away but he couldn’t.

Nanase was wearing swimming shorts. Sousuke snorted and then suddenly he was laughing because the guy in front of him was… ridiculous. Why had Sousuke ever felt threatened by him? He was just completely and utterly ridiculous and he was also his soulmate.

“Are you feeling alright?” Nanase didn’t sound overly worried, mostly confused, and even that, not even that much. Perhaps a bit annoyed? Sousuke had entered his house without permission and was laughing in his face, after all.

Nanase grabbed a towel and started running it through his hair, apparently not feeling self-conscious at all. Of course he didn’t; this was the guy that saw no problems in getting undressed in the middle of a park to enter the lake, after all.

It took some more seconds but Sousuke finally calmed down, although there was still a small smile dancing at his mouth.

Nanase had his towel around his hips now and was looking at Sousuke and he’d never noticed his eyes were that blue. Like water. He snorted again because this really was ridiculous.

Not taking his eyes away from Nanase, he started rolling up his sleeve, stopping just a bit above his elbow but that was enough.

Nanase’s eyes bulged a bit at that but that was his only reaction.

Sousuke kept looking at him, waiting for… something. An apology for not telling him earlier? Something along the lines of, “I don’t want anything to do with you”?

But Nanase, being who he was, said something completely unexpected. “Happy birthday.”

Sousuke blinked at him and almost started laughing again but this wasn’t the moment. “Thank you,” he said instead and he was pretty sure that was the first time he’d uttered those words to Nanase.

They stayed silent for some more time.

“Would you like some breakfast?” Nanase finally asked, once again being completely unexpected and Sousuke had a faint thought about how he’d always hoped to be with someone who surprised him.

“Yes, thank you,” he answered because why not?

Nanase started walking towards the door, but Sousuke was in front of him and didn’t bulge. Nanase looked up at him with a questioning look.

“Do you have my name?” He asked in a hoarse voice.

Nanase looked at him in silence for several seconds, like he was searching for something. Sousuke had no idea what that something was, so he just kept silent and looked into his eyes.

Finally, Nanase looked down at himself and lowered his swimming shorts just a bit. Right above his hip bone on the right side he had “Yamazaki Sousuke” tattooed.

Sousuke let out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. He looked at Nanase, who was still looking at his mark.

What should they do now?

Sousuke’s breath was coming in short. He knew his hands were getting sweaty and he still had his jacket sleeve rolled up.

Nanase finally looked back at him, this time not looking for something, but waiting.

Sousuke’s voice was still hoarse, but at least it didn’t break. “Would you like to go on a date with me?”

And Nanase… Nanase smiled and Sousuke owed Rin an apology, because soulmates marks were not stupid. Soulmates marks were smart and had seen what he hadn’t when it was standing right in front of him. That Nanase was beautiful and had never deserved to be treated the way Sousuke had treated him. But it was okay; he’d spend the rest of his life making up for it, if he had to.

“I thought that was what breakfast was,” he was still smiling and there was water running through his body and his hair was wet and falling over his eyes and Sousuke almost kissed him. But it was too soon for that.

Instead he gave his own smile back and finally moved away from the door. Haru passed him by, grabbing his hand and leading him away.

Sousuke just smiled at his back. This was a beautiful start. He didn’t know exactly what it was the start of, but it was going to be beautiful either way.

 


End file.
